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Questioning Techniques for the Gifted

As parents and teachers, we want to stimulate the thinking
of gifted kids by posing open questions and teaching students how to create
their own open questions.

A closed question is one that can be answered with
either a single word or a short phrase (i.e., "How old are you?" or
"Where do you live?" or any question that can be answered with either
"yes" or "no").

An open question, however, requires a longer, more
involved response and does not have one correct answer; instead, it causes the
respondent to think and reflect.

There are several resources available to help teachers create
open questions in the classroom. Parents can use these same resources to guide
interesting conversations at home and promote good problem-solving skills.

Open questioning techniques include essential questions and
critical thinking questions.

Although the information provided at this site is designed
for college students, most gifted students are fully capable of using the
techniques. I especially like the generic questioning stems, such as:

What
are the implications of …?

How
does … tie in with what we have learned before?

Do you
agree or disagree with this statement? What evidence is there to support
your answer?

There are also very good suggestions for using critical
thinking in student writing at this site.

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About Me

I am the author of Raising a Gifted Child: A Parenting Success Handbook and former author of the popular Prufrock's Gifted Child Information Blog.
I continue to offer the best strategies and resources for parents and teachers of gifted young people.
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